New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-07-25
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
rour POOR NOVELS.

SOME POOR NOVELS.
THE HOUSE OF THE MuslGIAN: ~ xs1oA co. w.
JOHNSON 16mos pp zo0' 0'A'
JILL AND JACK. BYE A DuIwrx limo. PIP. s's
ouiy. i2ns PIP 2s5. PAiladelphis: J. B. uppin-
colt Co
THE VAN aELDER PAPERS Edited BY J. 7. !.
izmo. PIP BIG. @. p. Putnam's eons.
BETWEEN wHILEs. BY HsIxx yAcKsox Oh. H.
~ l8mo. pp 3O4. Boston Roberts Brss.
THIRTEEN STORIES OF The FAB r. WEST ..,! BY
CIV. Bardeen-
TOLD AT TUXEDO BY A. NJ. EMORY 16mo PIP iAo'
G. r. Putnam's Sons.
aThe House of the Musician " Is . weird compost
ton, written a Il were on the borders OF cream
land, where everything IL vague and hazy and In
definite. A young Fleming develops . taste LOT OF"
aud finds patron who partly educates anu 'nsn
sepds him to Venice. There. IN the nome Oh quo
musician, he encounters two girls, sstors' ""o
both fall In love with him. He IL q stranRs nioo"y
creature. aud his sweethearts arc strange moony
CREATURES and o general mooniaess pervaocs '"o
story which is indeed not much OF story 30 lar a.
incident GOES There 10 nothing real in TINS dream
storv e>sn the local color is unreal ana OF tho
a,tistic nightmare kind 1t is scarcely possible 10
oecous interested IN the puppets that noat through
the srim. gloomy and peculiar pages, they arc 10
r,,.rIv allan to humanity. Nobody is happy In
tha story. but that Is consistent for such deeting
sbades could not put on human qualities There IL
8 certain subvcin Of poetry in the book, ana 'aiS
constitutes its rcdeeming feature.
The author of sill and Jack has amateurish
wars This novel 10 not consistent 1t belongs 70
no school but is hybrid wavsrng between tne
sensational and the unconstitutional IN confusing
fashion There is An English baronet who lives
principally for his clothes Him it Is desirable to
v,lu nj q
is reported to have begun life by hiring herself out
aa lxdy's maid on forged characters, and who her,
self ipgenuously coufesses at q subsequent period
that abe had commits theft. As all those reveal
tious are made to the remarkable baronet' ana as
they in no way affect his purpose to marry tno
candid il eccentric heiress, it may be gathered that
tho story drifts into somewhat unconventlonai
fields II docs. There 10 also husband and wiie
who move in high circles, and OF whom the iauy 10
an intending murderess and the gentleman a ireo-
hearted forger open to any engagement In the line
of lucrative iuiquitv. Having failed to cfioro1orm
their ward, whose money they naturally want, they
calmly ran away in tho middle of the night ana
the lady tumbles into q quarry and breaks her
preeious neck. But it all ends happily and every
BODY gets the sweetheart they desired, and the
dandy baronet turns out-as nobody outside
novel ever dd-to be perfectly unsupported nero
and the wedding bells chime merrily ana the
curtain falls in the conventional manner making
believe that the story is at An eud just when, IN
actual life, it is about to begin.
A vounc doctor and his intimate friend, young
uaintcr, 90 for vacation to little island in Old
rort Harbor. To them come presently the DOCTORS
sister and her girl friend. supplying IN famliiar
fashion the material for doublc-barrelled court
ship A travelling villain OF melodramatlc type'
beautiful exceedingly and full oil wlckedoess' ap.
mara "a tina guest of a millionaire who is supposed
TO be cruising with his yacht There are the usuai
dialect characters and an unusual amount OF de-
press,ngly crude didactic conversation The young
doctor, who comes perilously near to bong pr'g'
converts venerable professor In the course OF ah
hours talk from agnosticsm to orthodoxy, Nv
means of arguments which few modern schoolboys
would respect or fail to see the insu fciepcy OF.
The doctor, who is intended to be quite prodigy
of intellectual force, has difficulty in siiencing
minister who does not know the use o' MS proper
weapons. As to the girls, they are coioress crea
tures and ey on the villain Craik is far too I'D ana
un.uspectng to have progressed In CRIME 10 tue eA
tent represented. There 10 something which hgnres
ns detective work in the story, but 1t does not lay
sny strain upon the attention of the reader lho
summer in Oldport Hartor must have been OF a
kind to bore the average man, we should think,
but then Mr. Metcalf's people are hardly up to tho
the reader will.
1t may be asserted safely that If Washington
Irving had not written, the Van Gelder Papers
wonld not have appeared. They consist OF num-
Der O. short stories and alleged legends of Long
Island, in several instances closely modelled upon
the Sketch Book" The tales are Of the old Dntch
settlers of Captain Kidd. of spectres and phantom
huntsmen and ghosty mansions which disappear
with all their inmates at cOck-crow, of interviews
with the Old Gentleman, as our polite ancestors
were wont to style the Arch Euemy. Pretty Dutch
girls are run away with by stalwart and thrlftiess
Young Dutchmen, who attain fortune through
midnight encounters with restless spirits There IS
q supera bundaLce OF this sort Of machinery, and
while the tales are smoothly told aud with quaint
adjuncs here and there, tue line Is one winch mas
been overdone, and which the world no longer
appears to care for. Nevertheless there is certain
charm, for some minds In these imaginative burrow-
ings into tho past, aud the author has literary
form which shows a natural aptitude for narrative
ard az natural an inclination toward the eerie.
The story of Harry Blake, said to be founded on
fact ana which Is a case of instruction OF justice
through circumstantaI evidence, Is perhaps the
best In the book. 1t is simply and impressivey
told The concluding tale Is melancholy but too
artificial to be elective
Six short stories by Helen j ackson IA. H. have
been gathered into q volume to which tue 'i'ie
Between Whites" 10 given. They are not III Dcr
best manner. The first one, "The Tree Oh inc
Golden Pear is the longest, but was left unfinished
by the author. 1t is moro carefully Written ana
elaborate than the others and is marked by some
graceful description; but the character-drawlne Is
vague and indetermnate, and suggests doubt
whether the writer herself saw her men and women
clearly Mono Of the other stories are nc all remark
able either for matter treatment 1t Is only as
final memorials of II. H." that they are entitled
20 consideration and even regarded in that light IL
Is perhaps open to question whether her reputation
would not have been better served by citing them
remain unpublished or uncoilected
Mr. Heerioans's Stories OF the Far West" are
really much above tho average OF the kind In merI